Creator Capital: It’s Time To Transition From Knowledge Worker To Creator Capitalist

Category shifts bring the greatest opportunities—and AI is the biggest work shift in history.

Arrrrr! 🏴‍☠️ Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Category Pirates. Each week, we share radically different ideas to help you design new and different categories. For more: Dive into an audiobook | Listen to a category design jam session | Enroll in the free Strategy Sprint email course

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Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,

You’re living through one of the most exciting moments in human history.

Right now, you have the opportunity to design the career of your dreams. To create a life of radical abundance and unparalleled freedom. To do work that genuinely matters, taps into your greatest strengths, and allows you to create exponential value in the world.

This isn’t a hustle porn cliché.

It’s a radical idea—you can create your career.

(Just like you would custom design your unique version of a coffee drink at Starbucks.)

And not just any career, but one that is a dream come true for you.

Now, if you're skeptical, we understand. We didn’t always believe it either. But we assume you’re reading because you’re interested in what it could look like to create a legendary career and get paid to create net new value.

The reason you can do this now (more than at any other time in history) is because we’re living through the most significant category shift in the modern era: the rise of AI and the ascent of a new category of human—the Native Digital.

It’s happening now, and you’re perfectly positioned to surf this wave.

Here's why:

Category shifts bring the greatest opportunities—and artificial intelligence is the biggest work shift in history.

Think about the shift from farming to industrialization. Or analog to digital. Or about the internet in the 1990s—when legendary venture capitalist John Doerr said it was “under-hyped,” even though most considered it wildly overblown.

We feel the same way about AI today.

Despite all the buzz, AI is still radically under-hyped.

Because what’s actually happening isn’t just technological. It’s a full-blown category shift. And it’s reshaping how we work, what we value, and how careers are designed from the ground up.

• We’re shifting from an era dominated by Native Analog Knowledge Workers (who apply existing knowledge)…

• To an era led by Native Digital Creator Capitalists (who use AI to create net-new value no one else can replicate).

This change is happening faster than most people realize.

Think about it: For 300,000 years, humans have been analog-first. But Millennials and Gen Z—the first Native Digitals—flipped that script. They’re digital-first, analog-second. To them, a FaceTime call isn’t “virtual,” it’s face-to-face. A text isn’t casual, it’s primary communication. Their digital lives are the real ones.

Now, we’re entering the next wave: Generation AI.

Born after 2010, Gen Alpha will be the first humans to grow up with AI not as a tool, but as a native layer of daily life. It won’t be an add-on. It’ll be infrastructure.

This isn’t a small cultural blip.

It’s part of the most significant shift in how value is created since we stopped hunting and gathering. That’s what makes this moment so exciting. And while the world scrambles to catch up, you can get ahead.

To stop competing with AI—and start creating with it.

To stop applying old ideas—and start building new ones.

As author Richard Bach says, “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”

Here’s the good news:

If you’ve ever taken an idea and turned it into something of value for others (a social post, a product, a framework, a business plan, a podcast, a course, a company), you’re already a Creator Capitalist.

Let’s dive into what that actually means for your career.

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🔊 Want to listen to this mini-book instead? Head to the audiobook.

Creator Capital Audiobook

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Creator Capital: The New Value Stack To Transition From Knowledge Worker To Creator Capitalist

In 1959, Peter Drucker saw a legendary shift coming—the world was moving from muscle to mind. From factory floors to office towers. From blue collar to white collar. So Drucker created a new category: "Knowledge Workers,” people who work primarily with information and ideas rather than physical things.

For over 70 years, he was right.

Knowledge Workers became the most valuable people in every organization.

Companies obsessed over "knowledge worker productivity." Parents pushed their kids toward Knowledge Work careers (doctors, lawyers, professors, accountants, bankers, scientists, etc). The game was simple:

1. Get educated (acquire valuable knowledge)

2. Get hired (apply that knowledge)

3. Get paid (trade knowledge for money)

4. Get promoted (apply more knowledge)

5. Retire (stop trading knowledge)

This model created the most prosperous professional class in human history.

Until now.

The Internet democratized access to knowledge. AI made knowledge instantly available to anyone. Suddenly, knowing things isn't enough anymore. (Anybody can know anything they want, any time they want.)

When ChatGPT can instantly explain complex legal precedents, or AI can analyze market data faster than any human, or write high-quality software, or algorithms that diagnose diseases more accurately than doctors…

What's the value of just being knowledgeable?

AI changes the value of existing knowledge (and that’s great news).

Back in the day, knowledge was power. People repeated “knowledge is power” like a mantra. Existing knowledge had value because few humans could memorize and regurgitate knowledge on demand.

The more valuable knowledge you had, the more valuable you were.

These folks were called experts, professors, and professionals.

That’s why students were taught to memorize knowledge. Tests were created to discern how much (existing) knowledge students could accurately regurgitate. Knowledge Regurgitation was how you passed or not. Knowledge Regurgitation determined if you moved on to the next grade. Knowledge Regurgitation test scores determined where you could go to college. Knowledge Regurgitation was the driver of whether you got hired, promoted, and paid.

Knowledge cramming and regurgitation was the game.

That’s over.

AI destroys the value of existing knowledge.

Today, knowledge is cheaper than sand. Because AI doesn't just compete with Knowledge Workers—it demolishes them. Consider this:

• Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon says AI can draft 95% of an IPO prospectus (an S-1) in minutes—a task that used to require days of high-powered bankers, lawyers, and consultants. (We’ve written a few S1s in our day. It used to be a long, very expensive, slow grind. Not now.)

• Goldman Sachs research predicts AI will impact 300 million jobs globally. (Yes, you read that right—300 million jobs.)

• Some experts project that 90% of internet content will be AI-generated by 2026. (Read that again—90%.)

The writing isn't just on the wall. It's flashing neon on a billboard the size of Texas.

Want corporate law explained in five seconds flat? ChatGPT can do that. Need market insights faster than Goldman Sachs can draft a single S-1 slide? Perplexity and Grok have it covered.

We used to live under Moore’s Law—the idea that computing power doubled every two years.

But that timeline just got nuked.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang calls it Hyper Moore’s Law—AI isn’t doubling in power every two years. It’s doubling every 6 to 10 months. That means what was “state-of-the-art” in spring could be laughably outdated by Christmas.

And it’s not just speed.

It’s scale.

AI is now learning faster and creating more impact than most humans can comprehend. This is no longer about keeping up. It’s about catching a wave that’s already halfway to shore. (And AI is not just a wave. It’s a massive swell of compounding waves of increasing power.)

But this is legendary news.

While AI decreases the value of existing knowledge, it massively increases the value of creators—those who can leverage AI to generate net-new ideas, solutions, and content.

According to recent projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs susceptible to AI (including software developers, financial advisors, and engineers) will grow, ranging from 6% to nearly 18% through 2033.

Here’s the a-ha: While AI can replicate routine tasks, it significantly amplifies the value and demand for careers built around creativity, strategic thinking, and human innovation.

In other words:

• If your career depends solely on applying existing knowledge, you compete directly against AI.

• But if you use AI as a tool to create new thinking, new categories, and new possibilities, your value skyrockets exponentially.

If you think we’ve gone crazy, consider this leaked memo from Tobias Lutke, the CEO of Shopify, around AI:

Said differently: Imagine your company was just acquired by a Chinese company. One of the first memos said, “All business communication and meetings will now be conducted in Mandarin. Your ability to get promoted, your bonus, stock options, and the longevity of your career will be determined by your fluency in Mandarin.”

You’d get on Duolingo pretty quickly, no?

AI is the new language of business—you best start getting your flashcards ready. Because we’re witnessing something humanity has never seen before. Too many legacy Knowledge Workers are struggling.

(This will get worse.)

Those in trouble today are knowledge appliers—people who can do things easily replaced by AI.

This means the value stack has fundamentally shifted.

Forever.

FROM Knowledge Workers who:

• Learn existing information

• Apply knowledge for others in a company

• Own their title and paycheck

• Trade time for money

• Balance work/life

• Stay in their lane

• Compete on memorization/regurgitation

• Enjoy retirement and not working

TO Creator Capitalists who:

• Create new knowledge

• Build scalable solutions for themselves

• Own their own intellectual property

• Trade outcomes for money

• Have radical agency over their time

• Design their category

• Lead through different

• Love work and never want to retire

We predict AI will create more new value in the next 5 years than the past 20 combined.

But we’re worried many won’t recognize the profundity of this shift until it’s too late.

That’s why we’re on this mission: To propel you to become a Creator Capitalist who thrives in a post-AI world. Now, we're not here to teach you how to code, prompt-engineer, or build your ChatGPT clone. Plenty of legendary people already have that covered. Instead, our goal is to hand you a new lens to help you become someone who creates new value using AI, not someone replaced by it.

Because this isn't just another career trend.

It's as big a shift as Drucker saw in 1959—from manual labor to knowledge work. Now we're moving from knowledge work to Creator Capitalism. From applying information to creating innovation. From trading time to building assets.

And we know (some of) you might be thinking: “Wait… ‘capitalist’?”

So, let’s address the zebra in the room:

Why Creator Capitalism?

The word capitalist is loaded, especially among younger generations.

To many, it represents everything wrong with the system: inequality, exploitation, corporate greed. And the numbers back it up. A 2022 Pew study found that only 40% of Americans aged 18–29 view capitalism positively—the lowest approval rating of any age group. Given the realities of stagnant wages, widening wealth gaps, and repeated economic crises, it's understandable why many blame the system.

BUT. Consider the irony of an influencer criticizing capitalism…

• While recording a video from a comfortable home

• Using internet-connected smartphones, laptops, and earbuds

• Sharing their content globally via platforms built on capitalist innovation

• Wearing quality clothes and benefiting from countless capitalist-driven comforts

But that's exactly why we chose this language.

Because this is a reframe. A reclamation.

Capitalism’s greatest strength is its unparalleled ability to incentivize innovation and category creation.

Capitalism fuels innovation.

In 2024, European Union startups attracted approximately $52 billion USD in venture capital, while US startups secured $190.4 billion USD. This means the US raised 266% more venture capital than the EU that year. On that innovation metric alone, capitalist America is crushing Europe on new categories, innovation, and abundance. Even more telling. Americans were nearly 100% wealthier than their more socialist-leaning European friends in terms of GDP per capita in 2024 (US at $86,601 vs. the EU’s $43,350).

Capitalism isn’t perfect.

Unchecked, it can create real problems.

But with proper checks and balances, no other system comes as close to improving humanity’s success. Despite its flaws, capitalism has undeniably created immense value for humanity—at a scale unmatched by any other economic system. Its defining features (freedom, innovation, abundance, the profit motive, and individual agency) have propelled societies forward and lifted billions out of poverty.

Here’s how capitalism has contributed to creating breakthrough value:

• Medical innovation: Profit-driven pharmaceutical companies poured billions into mRNA research, leading to vaccines that saved millions of lives—and reshaped how we respond to global health crises.

• Digital platforms: YouTube paid creators over $70 billion from 2021–2023, proving that capitalism can monetize decentralized creativity and enable millions of people to earn a living from their ideas.

• Consumer abundance: Smartphones have democratized access to information, education, and opportunity for billions across the globe.

The more value you create, the more good you can do.

Capitalist America is number one in charitable giving globally, nearly double the generosity (as % of GDP) of second-ranked New Zealand. Capitalism, when used to create, is a powerful engine for innovation and abundance. It’s why we’re seeing a wave of Conscious Capitalism—companies using profit to fund purpose. Patagonia. Salesforce. Bombas. Toms. These companies are about profit and impact, not profit or impact.

We're reframing the word "capitalist," because the world needs a better model.

One where:

• Creation beats extraction.

• Innovation beats exploitation.

• Different beats domination.

• Impact beats accumulation.

The next wave is Creator Capitalism.

This is not about extracting value. It’s about creating net-new value (solutions, frameworks, businesses, and ideas) that didn’t exist before.

This isn’t the old capitalism that exploits workers and squeezes margins.

It’s the kind where:

• You own your outcome, your time, and your impact.

• You win by making the pie so big no one cares how big their slice is.

• You design your own value stack—based on your IP, relationships, and reputation.

As a Creator Capitalist, you don’t trade time for money. You build value that compounds. You don’t work for the system. You use the system to fund your freedom.

And when you build new value, everyone wins.

This is the future. Creator Capitalism isn’t a trend or a gimmick. It’s a new lens for how careers are built, wealth is created, and impact is made in an AI-first world. It reframes capitalism as something profoundly positive:

• See problems others can’t

• Build solutions others haven’t

• Package those solutions for your Supers

• Monetize across platforms, people, and time

• Play the infinite game of creating and compounding value

You don’t have to be famous. You don’t need a big following. You don’t need credentials. You just need the courage to create. Because when you shift from Knowledge Worker to Creator Capitalist, you’re not renting your future anymore. You’re owning it.

As Dale Carnegie famously said: "If it's meant to be, it's up to me."

Creator Capitalists understand that by creating new solutions, they can lift themselves and countless others around them.

The people who leverage AI as creators will become the most successful, impactful, and financially abundant humans ever to live.

The great news is, you have a choice:

• Cling desperately to the old, familiar world of Knowledge Work, hoping that AI won’t take your job.

• Or embrace this new AI-driven era as a Creator Capitalist—someone who creates net-new value, not someone who merely regurgitates yesterday’s information.

Frankly, we don't think it's much of a choice at all.

Soon, there will be two kinds of people: 1) Those made redundant by AI and 2) those made rich by AI. If you want to be the latter, it’s time to focus on new ways of thinking, innovating, and creating exponential value. Think. And let these two questions open your mind to the possibilities:

• If I were redesigning my career right now, with AI at its core, what would I build?

• If I launched a new business today, designed around AI from day one, how would it be different?

Because in an AI-first world, simply knowing things is no longer enough.

You must create.

The Creator Capitalist Flywheel

A Creator Capitalist isn’t another hustle, side gig, or freelance project.

It’s a radically different way of thinking about your career, your creativity, and your value. It’s about exiting the competition game of commoditized expertise and entering the infinite Digital Creation Game—one where your ideas, insights, and creativity compound exponentially. How you win this game is by building your Creator Capital, the new currency of career success.

Creator Capital is four distinct but interconnected assets that compound and accelerate one another in a flywheel effect:

1. Intellectual Capital: Your unique, differentiated ideas, frameworks, and perspectives others seek out and pay a premium for.

2. Reputation Capital: The credibility, trust, and visibility you build by consistently producing valuable insights, ideas, and results.

3. Relationship Capital: The deep, authentic meaningful connections and partnerships you build with people over a long career.

4. Financial Capital: The financial freedom, agency, and runway you create, which creates the flexibility to pursue the highest leverage opportunities and fuel the life you want to live.

These form the foundation of your Creator Capital Flywheel:

• Intellectual Capital helps you build differentiated ideas, which feeds your Reputation Capital.

• Reputation Capital highlights outcomes that attracts people who amplify your voice, fueling your Relationship Capital.

• Relationship Capital creates exponential leverage and distribution, driving income and increasing your Financial Capital.

• Financial Capital frees you from short-term scarcity, empowering you to invest even more deeply in building breakthrough Intellectual Capital.

Here’s how it works in practice:

Imagine building a framework (Intellectual Capital) that solves a big problem for your Superconsumers. You publish it on LinkedIn, attracting attention from people in your category. Your visibility grows (Reputation Capital), and suddenly, you’re getting invited onto podcasts, webinars, and guest articles, reaching even larger audiences. Each new conversation expands your network (Relationship Capital), creating opportunities for partnerships, collaborations, and high-value business deals. These opportunities translate into income (Financial Capital), which gives you space and resources to create more insights—feeding the flywheel further.

The result = exponential impact, exponential income, and exponential freedom.

Once you start spinning this flywheel, it gains momentum and grows, allowing you to become a Category of One—someone who can’t be replaced or commoditized.

Don’t think you’re capable? Think again:

• "IRON" Mike Steadman went from a struggling Knowledge Worker running a podcast agency to a Creator Capitalist who built "The Misfits," earning $25K+ contracts within months of designing his POV and building offers around his Superconsumers.

• Pablo Gonzalez quit a corporate career in construction, invented the "Digital Word of Mouth” category, and turned his Intellectual Capital (podcasts, frameworks, and event planning knowledge) into equity stakes, dramatically increasing his personal wealth and freedom.

• Carylyne Chan started with nothing—escaping a turbulent childhood in Singapore at age 15. With few privileges or connections, she taught herself tech, built and sold multiple startups (including an early AI narration company), and now is a category design advisor for high-potential teams looking to scale their businesses and capital.

• Holley Proctor Miller was the director of marketing for the healthcare business at Allergan. She used Category Design to quadruple revenues from $25 million to $100 million in 4 years—without adding incremental sales reps. That gave her the Reputation Capital to become the founder and CEO of Grey Matter Marketing and help life sciences companies 4x their revenue by creating research and frameworks for revenue reliability.

Now, most people mistakenly assume that becoming a Creator Capitalist means building a large following on social media or publishing endless streams of content. But likes, followers, and views alone won’t free you from the Knowledge Worker trap. You don't have to be famous, have a huge social following, or hold fancy degrees.

(We don't…unless you consider “high school dropout,” “ex-Cambridge partner,” and “office life rebel” prestigious titles.)

You just need a willingness to create new solutions to valuable problems.

Creator Capitalism isn’t about vanity metrics. It’s about value creation and ownership.

The distinction is important.

Knowledge Workers play finite games—zero-sum competitions over limited positions and promotions. Creator Capitalists play infinite games—leveraging their unique, differentiated ideas to create categories only they can own.

Legendary people are just normal people who summon the courage to be legendary.

We personally know every single one of the people whose story we shared above. We’re in awe of them. Because they’ve shared with us their (very real) fears, hopes, dreams, insecurities and (ultimately) the legendary lives and careers they designed for themselves. They have made themselves super valuable, in high demand, and wicked hard to be replaced by AI.

If you’re still doubting yourself…

Never forget the sage words of Richard Bach: “Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they are yours.”

Because here’s the alternative if you don’t believe in yourself and build your Creator Capital.

The 4 Career Crises No One Warned You About

Let’s get brutally honest for a second.

If you’re like most smart, capable people, you’ve probably spent most of your career doing what society told you was the right thing:

• Get good at something

• Get hired to do it

• Work hard

• Move up

You’ve played the Knowledge Worker game—exchanging time and expertise for a salary, climbing the ladder one rung at a time, maybe even reaching the top.

But deep down, you know something’s off.

Your income is capped. Your freedom is limited. Your value is tied to your title. And your future is controlled by someone else.

That’s not success. That’s a slow-motion trap.

It’s not your fault—you were taught to play a game that no longer works. (We all were.) But in the post-AI world, you can dodge the iceberg while everyone else sails straight into it.

Here are the four career crises Knowledge Workers face:

1. The Value Crisis: The value of existing knowledge is dropping. Most professors and PhDs are valued for their encyclopedic brains and ability to recall niche content areas. Rote memorization becomes worthless when a teenager without tenure can prompt the same existing knowledge regurgitation through an LLM.

2. The Category Crisis: Most Knowledge Workers don’t understand category design. They compete for existing jobs, titles, and compensation. They like the past and the present, so rejecting the premise and designing a new future is risky and scary for them. And they lack a clear Category POV, a Magic Triangle, or any strategy for differentiation, making them replaceable by the next AI update.

3. The Capital Crisis: They don’t understand the four Creator Capitals. They’re stuck in a paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, focused exclusively on Financial Capital—without realizing the compounding potential of Intellectual, Relationship, and Reputation Capital. Ever wonder why so many PhDs demand you call them “Dr,” even though they’re not saving lives? It’s because they think success is about titles, not outcomes.

4. The Courage Crisis: Knowledge Workers fear standing out. They seek safety in conformity, not realizing that "fitting in" is exactly what makes them expendable. It’s as if no one ever told them. Different wins. And, there are zero cover bands in the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. As a result, their title becomes their identity—not their unique superpower.

Now, you might feel proud to have climbed into high-paying roles or prestigious titles. You might even feel like you’ve "made it." But deep down, you (might also) sense something is missing. Because no matter how high you climb, your income is capped, your freedom is limited, and you don’t truly own your destiny.

You’re renting your future from someone else.

And that’s a problem.

There’s also a purpose problem you might be feeling. You see, at every company, only a small number of people really matter. Pirate Christopher knows a very senior product guy at Apple. He’s worked on some of the coolest, most leading-edge technology any person has ever worked on. Apple is a legendary company. He has a big title. He’s made big contributions—and made millions and millions. But. If he left Apple tomorrow, nothing about Apple and it’s future success would change.

Most of us want to feel like our work matters.

The old, Analog American Dream is no longer a path to fulfillment, freedom, or financial independence. Instead, it’s become a recipe for burnout, frustration, and mediocrity. Because Knowledge Work is about applying existing knowledge to existing problems. It's a competitive, zero-sum, fight over scarcity game that commoditizes your greatest asset—your creativity.

Take one of Pirate Eddie’s best friends from junior high, Emmett Tomai, the chairman of the Computer Science department at an R1 university. (That is a big, ding-dong deal.) He said when a new academic paper is submitted for comment, no professor nor PhD student will comment on it…until the most senior, respected person shares their opinion. Then, everyone else piles on and agrees in some way, shape, or form.

As the Japanese saying goes, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down…

To truly design your career and unlock exponential success, you stop borrowing other people’s knowledge, stop trading time for money, and start creating net-new value that you and only you can own.

You become a Creator Capitalist.

Anyone can design their career and become a Creator Capitalist.

Our friend and Play Bigger co-Author Kevin Maney in his book “Unscaled” argues that advancements in tech, particularly artificial intelligence and platform-based SaaS offerings, are shifting power from large corporations to individuals and small businesses.

This "unscaling" phenomenon allows Creator Capitalists to bypass the traditional need for economies of scale by leveraging rented technologies services like AI, cloud computing (e.g., Amazon Web Services), payment systems (e.g., Stripe), content platforms (Substack, Apple podcasts, YouTube), community and courses platforms (Mighty Networks) and digital marketing platforms (X, LinkedIn, Google and Facebook) and many more, empower one person to create the value of 10, 20, or many more people.

We believe the day is coming when we’ll see one person, one billion dollar (plus) value companies. We’re already seeing solopreneurs and very small teams produce value and revenue never imagined. This will accelerate.

The best part? Anyone can make this shift.

The key is having the courage to:

• See problems others miss

• Create valuable solutions others haven't tried

• Package your knowledge in ways others can use

• Make a massive difference that only you can make

• Build your Creator Capital and create true freedom

When you solve real problems, your credentials become a footnote to the value you create. Your results speak so loudly, no one cares about your pedigree. (Pirate Christopher does not have a high school diploma. During his career as a Silicon Valley CMO, not once did someone ask him where he went to school or what degree he had.)

Now, we want to address the little voice in your head that might be saying:

“These other people are special. They have things I don’t have. I can’t really do this.”

If you’re having thoughts like that, we’re here to tell you.

BS.

BS.

BS.

Legendary isn’t reserved for a special few. Legendary belongs to those who choose it. It’s about realizing that you don’t need to climb someone else’s ladder. You can build your own. And once you start building, you become impossible to replace.

You might be wondering: “Okay, I get it. I want to become a Creator Capitalist. But how do I actually start?”

You already have access to the most powerful leverage tool in human history. AI isn’t here to replace you—it’s here to amplify you. When used with intention, AI becomes a force multiplier for your creativity, your ideas, your reach, and your income.

Most people treat AI like a digital assistant or a smarter Google.

Not Creator Capitalists.

You don’t need to imagine what this looks like in theory. Creator Capitalists are already out in the wild using AI to build massive value, scale their ideas, and create exponential freedom.

Here are a few real (exponentially impactful) examples:

• Rachel Woods, founder of The AI Exchange, grew a 50,000+ subscriber newsletter in under a year by teaching people how to use AI—while using it herself to prototype content, streamline client work, and scale digital education.

• Justin Welsh, founder of The Saturday Solopreneur, built a $5M+ one-person business by using AI to generate content, develop digital products, and publish daily—without a team. He’s served over 100,000 course customers and reaches 500,000+ followers.

• Codie Sanchez, founder of Contrarian Thinking, runs a media and investing empire spanning 25+ businesses. She uses AI to evaluate deals, automate operations, and create content that reaches 1M+ subscribers—powering her 8-figure portfolio.

• Lenny Rachitsky, founder of Lenny’s Newsletter, focused on helping people in tech build products, drive growth, and accelerate their careers. He’s a former product manager who’s built a 1M+ subscriber business, becoming one of the most valued voices in the tech startup world.

These are Creator Capitalists in action. They’re not being replaced by AI—they’re rising with it.

But don’t let the size of their success intimidate you. This is what’s possible after compounding your Creator Capital day after day, year after year. Every single one of them started where you are right now. Curious, experimenting, creating one thing at a time.

You don’t need a big following, a breakthrough idea, or a million-dollar plan.

You just need a willingness to start and the courage to keep showing up.

Here are 10 simple guidelines to help you accelerate your Creator Capitalist career:

1. Commit to creating 30 minutes per day for 30 days. Each and every one of us was creative as a child. But 99.99% of adults have lost and forgotten that skill and joy. You need to commit to creating every day, no different than exercising, getting in your 10,000 steps, or 7-8 hours of sleep per day.

2. Choose and train your AI partner. Al Ramadan, the CEO of Play Bigger and OG Category Designer, shared how he doesn’t just upload documents and articles to AI. He spends 4-5 hours per day training it and giving it feedback. He reminded us there’s no free lunch—you get out what you put into it.

3. Pick your digital platform to create. This can be X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Substack, TikTok, or YouTube. It must be a digital platform where you get immediate feedback and exponential scale potential. It doesn’t matter which one, but pick one and commit to it.

4. Focus on learning vs. performing. Don’t worry about how many likes or shares you get. You are getting data and feedback. Create a tree of potential topics/themes you are excited about. Build a plan within your 30 days to test each area several times. At the end of the 30 days, look for patterns and signals—then double down there.

5. Automate your hate. Find the things you must do for work or your personal life that you absolutely hate. Use your AI partner and digital platform to figure out hacks to minimize the pain, time, and yuckiness that goes into this daily chore you have.

6. Leverage your love. On the flip side, look for things that you absolutely adore and would do for free if money was no object. Use your AI partner and digital platform to find ways to 10x the joy you get from this. Or exponential ways to share and connect with others on this.

7. Learn from others. The beauty is it is likely someone else is on the same journey as you. Look around, leverage other people’s learnings, and be generous with yours. You’ll find more joy in the journey, and go faster and longer when you go with others.

8. Measure the outcomes. At some point, you should be getting feedback from folks about your creation. Be curious and ask for more information. But don’t just ask, “Did people like it?” Ask: “Did this save someone time? Make them money? Relieve a pain? Bring them joy?” Then ask, “What would that be worth?”

9. Be kind to yourself. Progress is messy. You’re building something that didn’t exist before. Celebrate momentum. You’re already ahead of 99% of people by starting.

10. Categorize them into the four Creator Capitals. You will find success in your creations! We know it. When you start to see results, tag them. Did this build Financial Capital? Reputation? Relationship? Intellectual? Track what’s working—and build your flywheel.

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If you’re nodding along thinking, “This is what I need…” you’re exactly who we built Creator Capitalist for.

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Now, let’s dive in deeper.

How To Use AI To Build Creator Capital

AI isn’t just a tool—it’s your creative amplifier.

As a Creator Capitalist, you don’t use AI to automate the work. You use it to amplify your thinking, accelerate creation, and unlock exponential value across every form of Creator Capital.

Here’s how to use AI to build each of the four Creator Capitals:

1. Intellectual Capital

You don’t need a big platform or a viral idea to start building Intellectual Capital.

Take Jack Bigbee, a guy Pirate Eddie used to work with. He created a simple zip code autofill tool—just a lightweight utility that helps people save time filling out forms. It’s not flashy, but it solves a real problem. Now it earns enough passive income to cover his $19/month data costs and buy him a cup of coffee every month.

That’s Creator Capital in its simplest form—a one-time creative effort that solves a problem, compounds over time, and creates value with zero ongoing effort.

Now, imagine combining that kind of thinking with the leverage of AI.

AI won’t replace you if you’re creating new frameworks, tools, insights, and lenses the world hasn’t seen yet. In fact, it helps you get there faster by turning your net-new thinking into IC only you can create.

Here’s how AI can help you build net-new IC:

• Create frameworks by prompting AI with your raw ideas and asking it to organize, name, or visualize them in new ways.

• Pressure-test your thinking by asking AI to critique or argue against your position. If it can poke holes in your logic, patch them. If it can't, you're onto something.

• Turn notes into assets: Upload voice memos, meeting notes, or brainstorm sessions, and ask AI to summarize key themes or transform them into content outlines.

• Speed up iteration: Use AI to generate multiple versions of an idea (a blog, a framework name, a visual analogy) and choose the strongest.

• Refine your Category POV: Prompt AI with your problem statement and ask it to play devil’s advocate or represent customer objections—it’ll force you to sharpen your message.

This builds clarity. Faster creation. Sharper thinking. And Intellectual Capital that’s uniquely yours.

Go from grunt work to genius

AI also cuts the time and cost of creation so you can focus on breakthroughs:

• Idea synthesis: AI can scan hundreds of research docs and distill the core insights in minutes (vs. hours).

• Rapid prototyping: Tools like generative design AI can test product or visual ideas at scale instantly.

• Draft faster: Feed AI an outline or voice note—it gives you a strong first draft of your category manifesto, book, or newsletter.

• Analyze complex data: What used to take analysts weeks, AI can do in seconds—giving you real-time, evidence-backed insight.

• Organize your creative chaos: Tools like Notion AI, Slack integrations, and Miro can help you tag, track, and collaborate without slowing down your momentum.

• Learn faster: AI tutors and simulations can teach you complex new fields (e.g., quantum biology, game theory) at your own pace.

Create exponential value, not just incremental wins

AI can also push your IC into new dimensions:

• Spark unexpected innovation: Use it to connect dots across domains—like using supply chain principles to design an educational framework.

• Forecast trends: Train AI to track patents, social trends, and consumer behavior to help you spot new category opportunities.

• Build IC flywheels: AI turns your best idea into 10—by spinning one book chapter or newsletter into a script, carousel, keynote deck, or course.

• Run simulations: Model out how your idea would impact a market, audience, or ecosystem before you build an offer.

• Test your premise: AI can identify flaws or weaknesses in your core assumptions. (Better to find out now than after you launch.)

• Package and protect it: Use tools like PatentPal to draft IP filings or prompt AI to identify monetization opportunities via licensing or digital product spinouts.

This is just the beginning. In the near future, we’ll see:

• Brain-to-AI jamming: Imagine translating your thoughts directly into structured documents.

• IC marketplaces: Where thousands of micro-innovations get synthesized into billion-dollar frameworks.

• AI co-conspirators: Neural networks that create entirely new categories alongside you—not just as tools, but as creative partners.

When you leverage AI to create IC, you’re not asking it to think for you. You’re using it to think with you. AI cuts the grunt work (research, drafting, testing), freeing up time and mental energy.

It then turbocharges value creation by enhancing creativity, spotting opportunities, and scaling output into assets with compounding worth.

The result is Intellectual Capital that’s not just incrementally better but exponentially valuable (think Nobel-worthy discoveries, billion-dollar IPs, or culture-shifting paradigms), all built with AI as a partner.

2. Reputation Capital

You don’t need a blue checkmark or a million followers to build a powerful reputation.

Danny Bauer works in one of the most traditional industries of all—education. But by launching his Better Leaders, Better Schools podcast and positioning himself as the Category King of “Ruckus Makers who do school different,” he built a reputation that transcends job titles and credentials. What started as coaching school principals evolved into advising entire districts and education technology companies—because Danny consistently shared his thinking in public, with a clear, differentiated point of view.

That’s Reputation Capital.

Built through clarity, consistency, and showing up with something only you can say.

In the AI era, distribution without differentiation is dangerous. Posting content for content’s sake will make you blend in with the hustle porn stars. But pairing your unique POV with AI’s speed? Now you’re creating at scale.

Here’s how to use AI to build Reputation Capital that compounds over time:

• Create content faster: Use AI to draft LinkedIn posts, newsletters, or articles based on your frameworks or recent wins.

• Repurpose your best stuff: Feed a podcast transcript or webinar recording into AI and ask for threads, reels, scripts, mini-courses, or newsletters.

• Write with your voice: Train AI on your writing style (using your past content) so it mimics your tone, cadence, and Languaging.

• Build a content engine: Map a weekly calendar across formats (video, carousel, newsletter, tweet thread) using a few core ideas.

• Design differentiated visuals: Pair AI with tools like Midjourney or DALLE to generate visuals that support your frameworks and reinforce your category POV.

Scale Your Reputation

• Design your POV: Prompt AI to help you write a category-first bio, elevator pitch, or landing page that clearly explains who you are and what you stand for.

• Monitor Superconsumer perception: Track how your work is being talked about online and amongst Superconsumers—and refine your POV based on that feedback.

• Spot opportunities to show up: Ask AI to find relevant podcasts, media requests, or community forums where your unique POV could make an impact.

• Engineer credibility touchpoints: Use AI to turn case studies, testimonials, and wins into content that builds social proof.

• Crisis-proof your category: If something goes sideways, AI can help you come up with customer responses, clarify misunderstandings, or simulate how a message might land with your audience before you hit publish.

Blend Your Digital & Analog Reputation

Reputation doesn’t only live online. AI can help bridge your presence across real-world and digital spaces:

• Personalized coaching: Use AI to refine your public speaking, storytelling, or interview presence. (Even tools like Otter and Descript can help you analyze your voice patterns or pacing.)

• In-person amplification: Ask AI to prep you for a keynote, community gathering, or meeting by researching the audience and finding relevant insights.

• Engineer word-of-mouth: AI can help you spot small but meaningful touchpoints—like sending a timely voice memo, article, or thank-you message to someone in your network.

• Reputation syncing: If you’re known as a thought leader online, AI might suggest stories or actions to reinforce that perception when you’re offline. That might sound weird now, but Native Digitals already experience this. The more digital we become, the more we’ll need help connecting offline too.

We’re not far from digital twins, real-time trust scores, and AR overlays that shape how we’re perceived before we even say a word.

But here’s the good news: You don’t need futuristic tools to get started.

Use AI to become more you—mission-driven, clear, and consistent. Use it to build a reputation that earns trust, not attention. Use it to tell the world what you stand for, before someone else defines it for you.

This builds consistency, visibility, and a body of work that earns trust at scale.

3. Relationship Capital

You don’t need to “network.” You need to build relationships that compound.

Pablo Gonzalez walked away from his corporate career to pursue a mission—creating “Digital Word of Mouth,” a new category of marketing that bridges Native Digital and Native Analog worlds. How did he build his flywheel? Through relationships. He’s launched nine podcasts and hosted nearly 1,000 episodes—including the B2B Community Builder Show and the Property Management Frame Breakers show focused on AI disruption in property management.

Pablo doesn’t just build a big audience—he builds high-trust, high-value relationships that generate community, clients, and capital. He uses AI to research guests, analyze market shifts, and craft conversations that resonate deeply with both humans and algorithms.

That’s Relationship Capital.

Not more DMs.

More depth. More resonance. More trust.

In the AI era, relationship-building gets a serious upgrade. It doesn’t replace human relationships. But it can help you be smart and strategic about identifying, deepening, and scaling connections that amplify your mission.

Here’s how to use AI to build Relationship Capital:

• Find high-leverage connections: Use AI to research category leaders, event speakers, or community builders who align with your mission.

• Write personalized emails: Use AI to tailor DMs or emails based on someone’s content, recent posts, or shared values. (Just don’t be a donkey. Make sure you take the time to do your research before reaching out.)

• Prepare for high-stakes conversations: Input someone’s public writing or podcast into AI and ask for key themes, beliefs, and styles so you can have a more meaningful conversation.

• Turn ideas into conversation starters: Use AI to turn your latest IP into thoughtful questions or prompts for dinner parties, collabs, or roundtables.

• Map your network strategically: Ask AI to categorize your network—mentors, clients, collaborators, amplifiers—and suggest when/how to engage with each.

• Spot connection opportunities: Use AI to track news, context shifts, or events that create natural openings for high-impact reach-outs.

You can also use it to make relationship-building easy, smart, and more human.

• Plan events with AI: Tools like Doodle’s smart scheduling or AI-enhanced CRMs can help you coordinate gatherings, panels, or co-marketing opportunities.

• Enhance your pirate-y vibe: In the near future, wearables + AI will offer real-time feedback on tone, body language, and emotion—helping you become more charismatic or empathetic in high-stakes moments. (It’s coming, whether we like it or not.)

• Automate thoughtful gestures: AI can help scale the unscalable—reminding you to send a note, gift, article, or birthday message to someone who matters. Small actions make a big impression.

• Bridge online and offline: AI can help ensure the story you're telling on social (innovator, builder, artist, etc.) syncs with how you're showing up in real life, reinforcing a consistent and memorable reputation.

And in the future?

• Predictive chemistry: AI might simulate relationship dynamics to recommend who you’re most likely to build deep, fruitful connections with.

• Group flow: AI could orchestrate group conversations, co-creation, and brainstorming sessions for maximum harmony and insight.

• Shared memory: Imagine being reminded of an important story someone told you years ago—at just the right moment—so you can bring it up and deepen the bond.

AI is the social conductor of your career and life. It helps you spend less time guessing who to reach out to, what to say, and how to follow up—and more time actually building real relationships that move your mission forward.

But remember: AI won’t build your relationships for you.

That’s still your job.

What it can do is help you connect more meaningfully, with more people, in more powerful ways than ever before. So don’t network. Build net-worth relationships that amplify your impact. And let AI help you scale that trust with intention and heart.

4. Financial Capital

You don’t need a huge exit or viral product to start building real financial freedom.

You need leverage—and a system that pays you for your thinking, not just your time.

Adam Frankl is a great example. After years as a startup advisor, he saw a pattern: developer-facing startups needed help bringing technical products to market. So he created frameworks that solved real problems—and started taking equity instead of invoices. That shift gave him the freedom to publish The Developer Facing Startup, launch a training program for technical founders, and grow his reputation as the go-to advisor in his niche. The more Intellectual Capital Adam builds, the more his Financial Capital compounds.

This is what happens when you stop trading hours and start building assets.

AI lets you scale your thinking without scaling your team. That’s leverage—and leverage is the foundation of exponential income.

Here's how to use AI to build your Financial Capital:

• Package your IC: Turn your frameworks into digital products (courses, workshops, guides) with AI as your ghostwriter, script-builder, and slide designer.

• Write landing pages and sales emails: Get feedback on your website copy and create a unique POV that sells your offers.

• Model pricing scenarios: Ask AI to help you reverse-engineer your income goals into product price points, client packages, or licensing deals.

• Automate back-end operations: Use AI to streamline scheduling, invoicing, and customer service with personalized automation.

• Forecast business models: Ask AI to model different monetization strategies (one-on-one services vs. scalable IP vs. subscription) based on your goals.

Reduce Costs & Reclaim Time

• Automate backend ops: Use AI to streamline scheduling, invoicing, client onboarding, and customer support—so you can focus on creating and scaling.

• Track and cut expenses: AI budgeting tools like YNAB or PocketGuard can analyze your bank activity and flag money leaks (e.g., forgotten subscriptions, overpriced software, etc.).

• Negotiate and cancel automatically: Tools like Trim or Billshark use AI to lower your bills or cancel services you no longer need.

• Optimize purchases: AI apps like Honey or Capital One Shopping automatically apply coupon codes or monitor for price drops, saving you money passively.

Grow Your Net Worth

• Invest smarter: Robo-advisors like Betterment use AI to build and rebalance portfolios that match your goals and risk tolerance—with lower fees than most humans.

• Find income opportunities: AI can match your skills to market demand and surface freelance gigs, consulting projects, or product ideas based on current trends.

• Upskill for ROI: AI learning platforms like Coursera or LinkedIn Learning can recommend high-leverage skills (e.g. prompt engineering, data visualization) to help you earn more, faster.

• Maximize your earnings: AI can coach you through job offers or client negotiations by benchmarking rates and even drafting negotiation emails.

• Boost rental returns: If you own property, tools like AirDNA use AI to help you price intelligently and screen tenants for higher yield with less vacancy.

And in the future?

• Create a Financial Twin: Imagine an AI that runs simulations—"What if I invest in X?" or "Should I launch Y offer?"—before you commit.

• Dynamic income management: In the future, AI could reallocate your earnings across a diversified portfolio (stocks, crypto, private markets) daily, chasing yield automatically.

• Behavioral nudging: Wearable tech + AI may soon recognize impulse spending patterns and nudge you toward more conscious financial choices. (Yes, that’s a little creepy—but also kind of useful.)

AI helps you save time, cut costs, and make money while you sleep. It transforms your financial life from manual and reactive—to scalable and strategic. The goal isn’t just more income. It’s more freedom.

More margin to take swings. More space to build things that matter.

Use AI to stop trading hours for dollars—and start compounding your Financial Capital instead.

A Final Word: Choose Courage Over Comfort

By now, you’ve seen the full picture.

You understand the old game of Knowledge Work is collapsing. You see how AI is rewriting the rules of value creation. And you’ve been handed the tools to start building your Creator Capital—today.

But tools alone don’t build anything.

You do.

Not with credentials. Not with status. Not with someone else’s permission.

You build with courage.

It Takes Courage To Be Legendary

The courage to create something that’s never been done. The courage to show up when it feels easier to stay small. The courage to design your career, not rent it. The courage to become legendary, not just successful.

Here’s the truth most people won’t admit:

• You will never feel “ready.”

• You will constantly question yourself.

• You will always feel a little bit like a fraud.

That’s how you know you’re on the right path. Because the right path will always demand your courage. We don’t need more Knowledge Workers with better résumés. We need more Creator Capitalists who are brave enough to build something different.

So here’s our challenge to you:

Don’t just survive this shift. Lead it.

Use AI not to automate your life, but to amplify it.

• Don’t ask, “Will I be replaced by AI?”

• Ask, “What can I now create that was never possible before?”

Because in this new world, the people who rise aren’t the ones who know the most.

They’re the ones who create the most value.

You don’t need anyone’s permission to start. You don’t need a bigger following, a better title, or another certification. You just need the courage to begin.

Because the future won’t be won by the most credentialed.

It’ll be won by the most courageous.

Arrrrrr,

Category Pirates 🏴‍☠️

Eddie Yoon

Christopher Lochhead

Katrina Kirsch

P.S. - Ready to design your career as a Creator Capitalist?

If you're fired up right now… good. Because this isn’t just something to read about. It’s something to act on. If you’re ready to stop renting your future, discover your Superpower, monetize your Creator Capital, and design a career where you get paid to be YOU…

Then join the waitlist for Creator Capitalist. This isn’t about climbing someone else’s ladder—it’s about building your own.

You can learn more here.